Public domain paintings of Catholic male saints.
Details: Although born into a wealthy merchant family, St. Francis (1181-1226) rejected all wordly goods, dedicating himself to chastity, humility, and selfless acts of kindness. By the time of his death, the order of friars he founded had expanded throughout Europe. In the summer of 1224, Francis visited a mountain...
Details: One of the most sought-after painters in late 17th-century Rome, Passeri was also a prolific draftsman. The tenderly depicted venerating saint may be identified as Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (340–430), whose miter and crosier are held by two angels, while his numerous writings are represented by the open...
Details: These leaves are from a lectionary (a book of gospel readings used in church services) that was presented to the Holy Trinity Monastery at Chalke in Constantinople by the Empress Katherine Komnene in 1063. The tools of the scribe's trade are laid out before the evangelists: a...
Details: Saint Anthony Preaching to the Fish (Italian: Predica di sant'Antonio ai pesci; literally, Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fishes) is a 1580–1585 oil on canvas painting of Anthony of Padua by Paolo Veronese, now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Its original location is unknown,...
Details The largest painting ever done by Caravaggio and the only one he signed. The subject of the painting is the execution of John the baptist. According to the gospels Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, had imprisoned John the Baptist. Herod was so pleased by the dancing of...
Details The Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto (c. 1572, oil on canvas, 169 x 137 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice) is a painting by Paolo Veronese. The lower half of the painting shows the events of the battle, whilst at the top a female personification of Venice is...
Details This is a very popular subject for painters. The oldest depictions are from the 10th century and has been popular ever since. According to Legenda sanctorum or Legenda aurea, this story took place in Libya at a fictional city. Near the city a dragon dwelled which devestated the countryside....
Details ‘Martyrdom of St. Denis’ was created in 1886 by Leon Bonnat in Academicism style. Saint Denis is a Christian martyr from the third century. Denis was Bishop of Paris and made many conversions with his speeches. The local Roman priest were alarmed by this and had Denis together with...
Details The finest textiles and dress associated with the aristocracy were often represented in religious paintings. Here, the Virgin is clothed in a fashionably tailored dress with close-fitted sleeves made of luxurious velvet. Gold thread forms the pomegranate pattern on the deep crimson velvet ground. Saint Sebastian (on the right)...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The subject of Saint Peter’s repentance was a popular one in the 16th and 17th century in Catholic countries like Italy and Spain. The Catholic Church wanted to promote the idea of repentance to the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Saint Ildefonsus or Ildephonsus was a scholar and theologian who served as the metropolitan Bishop of Toledo for the last decade of his life. His Gothic name was Hildefuns. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church he...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Ribera painted many half-length images of saints for Catholic patrons, most likely for private worship. Here he rendered the hermit Saint Onophrius—unkempt, wearing a loincloth of leaves—with great realism: dirty fingernails, hollowed cheeks, flesh...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The young figure on horseback can almost certainly be identified as Louis of Toulouse (1274-97), the second son of Charles II, king of Naples, who renounced the throne of Naples and entered the Franciscan order. He...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This leaf was excised from a volume of a large set of choral books known to have been commissioned by Bartolomeo delle Rovere for Ferrara Cathedral. Delle Rovere, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, was the Bishop...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Jerome, (c. 342–420) also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Latin priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. Jerome was born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! According to the ancient Martyrologies, Margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Her mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a Christian woman five or six leagues (6.9–...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The painting was originally part of a polyptych at Sansepolcro, where it was seen by Piero della Francesca. It portrays St. Francis of Assisi while ideally marrying the three Theological Virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, through...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Longinus (/ˌlɒnˈdʒaɪnəs/) is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity....
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Aloysius de Gonzaga was an Italian aristocrat (1568–1591) who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! St. Sebastian is the subject of three paintings by the Italian Early Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna. The Paduan artist lived in a period of frequent plagues; Sebastian was considered protector against the plague as having been...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Paul of Thebes is known to posterity because around the year 342, Anthony the Great was told in a dream about the older hermit's existence, and went to find him. Jerome related that Anthony...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Jerome, (c. 342–420) also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Latin priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. Jerome was born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar and cleric. For over three decades, he was Archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! St. Sebastian is the subject of three paintings by the Italian Early Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna. The Paduan artist lived in a period of frequent plagues; Sebastian was considered protector against the plague as having been...
